


Lemon Tea

by cmshaw



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2000-07-13
Updated: 2000-07-13
Packaged: 2017-10-05 07:00:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/39040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cmshaw/pseuds/cmshaw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When life gives you a lemon....</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lemon Tea

**Author's Note:**

> This style is something of an experiment for me. I'm usually a very physical writer; I wanted to see if I could write a scene that was all dialog. It didn't look right in anglophone quotes, but for some reason the francophone indication of spoken lines worked (this is a style which always makes my tongue feel numbed when I read it, because it doesn't quite read as noise).

\--Are you sure you're okay here?

\--Jim, man, sit down already. They kept me in the hospital for-fucking-ever and I'm sure I can spend a few hours on the couch.

\--Okay.

\--So. When's the hearing?

\--Day after tomorrow.

\--...And?

\--I don't know, Sandburg. I just don't know. It's not going to be a formality this time.

\--I don't get it. You didn't have a choice --

\--You always have a choice.

\--Well jeez. So sorry for preferring the scenario where I survive!

\--Me too. Obviously.

\--Then why the moping?

\--I'm not moping, Sandburg.

\--Jim.

\--What if they give me back my badge and put me back on the streets?

\--Isn't that what you want? I mean, that's good, right?

\--I shot five people, Chief.

\--In the line of duty.

\--Backup was moving in. We could have arrested them.

\--And in the meantime, I would've bled to death.

\--Yes. I'm hoping to hit IA hard with the "officer down" line.

\--Lucky for me I've got that badge, is that it? What would you have done if I were just plain ol' Mr. Sandburg still, let me die?

\--No.

\--I'm sorry.

\--I wasn't thinking about your badge, Sandburg.

\--I know, Jim. I'm sorry. ...What were you thinking about, then?

\--I don't know.

\--Come on, man.

\--I don't know, Sandburg! I wasn't thinking, I was reacting. You went down, I moved to cover you until the EMTs got there.

\--I remember you cussing me out for getting shot.

\--Yeah, well. I was upset.

\--You'd just killed five people.

\--I didn't know that then.

\--What did you think you'd done?

\--Sandburg, I.... Look, they were obstacles. I removed them. End of story.

\--I don't think IA's gonna like that.

\--IA would lock me up as a sociopath. Maybe they'd be right.

\--Whoa, man. Where'd that come from?

\--You know how you've been trying for years to get me to, to focus in crises clearly enough to shoot accurately, I mean hyper-acute eyesight accurately?

\--Yeah.

\--How come it only works when I'm completely out of control?

\--At the risk of sounding like something out of Star Trek, you need to "let go your conscious mind".

\--That's Star Wars, not Star Trek.

\--Whatever. Do you see what I mean?

\--No.

\--Look, it's, it's sort of a zen state, man. You can't get it by trying; you have to be not trying.

\--I wasn't trying to kill people.

\--Exactly.

\--What do you mean, "exactly"? Exactly what?

\--Simon said you dropped all five of them in under a minute, while all of them were behind cover and shooting back. How did you do that?

\--I could hear them. I could even see them, where they were standing in front of the cinderblocks.

\--See them?

\--Like with nightvision goggles. The wall was cold.

\--You couldn't see into infrared before.

\--I just did it.

\--And that is exactly what I mean. When you really needed to do it, you could.

\--Right, so what happens the next time I get pissed off and need to kill someone, Blair?

\--I don't think you were pissed off this time.

\--Only at myself, for letting this happen.

\--You were scared.

\--Look --

\--You were scared, Jim.

\--Sandburg --

\--Jim. Shut up. I know damn well you were scared. But you didn't panic, and that's the important thing here. You channeled it usefully.

\--Simon was scared. Of me.

\--Of you?

\--Yeah. He thought I was berserk, or something like that.

\--I suppose you were, in a way.

\--He thinks it's because you're my lover.

\--Didn't you tell him --

\--Jeez, Sandburg; yes, I told him.

\--What, he thinks we're having some secret love affair and you won't even tell your best friend?

\--Yeah.

\--You're serious. Simon really thinks we're sleeping together.

\--That's what I said.

\--And you told him point-blank that we were just friends --

\--And he didn't believe me, yes.

\--Well. I can see his side. Some days I even have trouble believing it.

\--Yeah, I know what you mean.

\--You too, huh?

\--Well, some days.

\--Maybe sometime we should try overlapping those days. See what happens.

\--Um. Remind me again why we're not sleeping together, Chief?

\--Fraternization regs.

\--Right, right.

\--Ethics on the use of humans as test subjects. Your heterosexuality. My heterosexuality. Inertia. Fear of breaking up our partnership.

\--Yeah, I get it, Sandburg, okay?

\--Still gotta wonder, though.

\--Yeah, well, let's try not wondering while IA is breathing down our necks for breaking those fraternization rules.

\--IA thinks --?

\--They will once they talk to Simon.

\--Shit, man.

\--"Cop of the Year Revealed as Homosexual Mass Murderer".

\--Cut it out, Jim. Be serious here. We need to figure out how to handle this.

\--Seriously. Should I hand in my badge?

\--No.

\--How can you be so goddamned certain?

\--I know you. I trust you.

\--I killed --

\--Five people, yes. Five people who were at the time trying to kill you, and probably feeling a lot less remorse about it.

\--Don't bet on it.

\--Jim --

\--You don't understand me.

\--Make me understand.

\--You can't. You weren't there.

\--There? There where? ...Is this some military black-ops assassin thing?

\--You know I can't --

\--Jim, for chrissakes, talk to me.

\--I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't, aren't I? These stupid senses.... How far can the ends justify the means, Blair? How far can I go before I'm out of line?

\--If you're still asking, you haven't gone that far.

\--That's a cop-out and you know it.

\--What do you want me to say?

\--I wish I were crazy. I wish I were sleeping with you. Some stupid sordid little affair would at least be understandable.

\--Hey. "Sordid"?

\--You're my roommate. And eight years younger than me.

\--Seven years.

\--You're still my roommate.

\--And I'm not having any sort of affair with anyone until this gaping hole in my side heals a little more, thank you very much.

\--Fine then. You know, you encouraged me in this.

\--In what, homosexuality?

\--Blair --

\--Sheesh, sorry. What did I encourage?

\--Bending the rules.

\--Only because you're such a stickler for the rulebook that we'd never get anything accomplished otherwise.

\--Chief, since when have I ever obeyed the rules?

\--Come on, man, you're always like, "Oh, we need this for evidence," and "Can't do that, it's not police procedure".

\--Right. You want to sit in court again and try to explain that I visually ID'd a man across the length of a football field?

\--No. Hell no.

\--Neither do I. For all intents and purposes, I obtained that information illegally.

\--It's not illegal to be a Sentinel!

\--Sometimes it is. Illegal wiretaps, illicit lie detectors, searches without a warrant?

\--You can't not use your gift, Jim. You're helping so many people --

\--We've been over this.

\--You admitted I was right last time.

\--I know. You were.

\--Well then.

\--How far does this rationalization go, Sandburg?

\--As far as it has to.

\--You can really be a cold-blooded bastard when you want to be, can't you.

\--"Check your emotions at the door". That's your lesson, remember?

\--Check your ethics, too?

\--No.

\--Oh, I see. I just trust in you and you'll tell me what's right.

\--Isn't that what you were just asking me? To tell you what to do about this IA investigation?

\--No!

\--Jim, look. I don't know what to tell you here, okay? I didn't see what happened; I was lying face down at the time and not paying attention. No matter what happens, though, thank you for saving my life.

\--How am I supposed to answer that?

\--You're not. You're supposed to nod and say "you're welcome", then go make me some tea.

\--Peppermint or lemon?

\--Lemon.

\--Blair?

\--Yeah?

\--You're welcome.

\--You too, Jim.


End file.
